INCOME TAX CUTS IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25589, 2 September 1948, Page 5

INCOME TAX CUTS IN AUSTRALIA

RETROSPECTIVE LOWER RATES CANBERRA. September 1. The lower rates of income tax approved by the Australian Parliamentary Labour Party will be retrospective to July 1, and reduced deductions from wages and salaries will begin on the first pay day in October if ths Taxation Commissioner and the Government printer can print and distribute the new schedule of deductions before then. The effect of this under the “pay as you go" taxation is that taxpayers will pay income tax at the present rate for three months and at the reduced rate for nine months. Their overpayment will be refunded to them when the full taxes for the year have been assessed. Opposition members and taxation experts are already condemning the Federal Government’s Budget concessions as “hopelessly inadequate to meet the rising cost of living.” They say that though the income tax cuts total £29.000.000 they will be offset by the 15 per cent, rise in living costs. Most authorities regard this rise as inevitable as it is linked with the withdrawal of Federal subsidies on wool, imported textiles, potatoes, and coastal shipping freights, estimated at £22,500.000 a year. Not less important are the full effects of the general adoption of the 40-h’our week and the easing of controls on prices, rents, and land sales.